Saddam's cohorts seek to pay off families of dead

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Saddam Hussein's co-defendants are paying blood money to their
victims' relatives in a desperate effort to protect themselves from
vigilante retribution.

The move, brokered by tribal sheiks around Dujail, the town
where Saddam and his henchmen allegedly massacred more than 140
Shiites after a failed assassination attempt, follows last week's
murder of a defence lawyer.

The death of Saadoun al-Janabi has terrified the 11 other
lawyers hired to defend the Saddam and seven other Baathists.

They have issued a statement saying they would boycott the court
unless they were given protection and calling for proceedings to be
moved abroad. They want US bodyguards, distrusting the Iraqi
security agencies.

Yet Britain's ambassador in Baghdad, William Patey, urged the
Shiite-led Government on Sunday to hold an inquiry into accusations
its security forces are operating anti-Sunni "death squads".

Mr Janabi's killing has prompted Iraq's bar association to urge
lawyers to boycott the special court trying Saddam until the murder
is solved.

"The crime was clear and witnessed, and it should be easy for
any investigatory agency to solve, so arresting the killers should
not be difficult," it said on Sunday.

In Dujail, a majority Shiite town in the mainly Sunni province
of Salahdin, the start of the case has led to fears of revenge
attacks. The families of those on trial alongside Saddam still live
in the area and have opened negotiations with relatives of the dead
to "do whatever they want" as long as they and their relations are
spared retribution.

Local Shiites fear revenge attacks from Sunnis for their
community's co-operation with the tribunal's investigating judges,
who prepared the evidence which Saddam and his supporters face. Two
were kidnapped and one killed on Saturday when they left to try to
drive to Najaf.

Meanwhile, British troops have seized nine Iraqis suspected of
activities including attacks against British soldiers, as officials
admitted a poll showed 82 per cent of Iraqis "strongly opposed"
having foreign troops in their country.

In northern Iraq a bomb struck a police colonel's car, killing
him, his two children and two girls..

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1130006061702-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/saddams-cohorts-seek-to-pay-off-families-of-dead/2005/10/24/1130006061702.htmlsmh.com.auAgencies2005-10-25Saddam's cohorts seek to pay off families of deadSalih al-Qaisi in Dujail and Oliver Poole in BaghdadWorldhttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/10/24/th_saddam2_index-thumb__60x40.jpg